Changes in Sulzer Management
The two Executive Committee members Christina Künzle, head of Corporate Development, and Eduard Rikli, head of Sulzer Metco, will be leaving the Sulzer Corporation per year-end 2003. The new head of Corporate Development will be Markus Heusser who has been with McKinsey since 1996. Bruno Walser, a long-standing member of the Sulzer Executive Committee, will head Sulzer Metco ad interim until a long-term successor is appointed. Thomas Gutzwiller will take over from Bruno Walser as head of Markets and Technology.
Christina Künzle, currently head of Corporate Development, will leave the Sulzer Corporation per year-end 2003 in order to return to executive coaching and HR consultancy. This decision was jointly agreed in a most constructive way and mutual understanding. Sulzer sincerely thanks Christina Künzle for the new aspects and ideas she has introduced during her time with the corporation.
The new head of Corporate Development will be Markus Heusser, PhD, aged 37, who is a graduate in business administration. He has been with McKinsey since 1996 in various positions. Previously he spent several years as a consultant with Ernst & Young. Markus Heusser will start with Sulzer as of November 1, 2003.
Eduard Rikli, the current head of Sulzer Metco, will leave Sulzer per year-end to take up a new challenge with another company. Sulzer thanks Eduard Rikli for his valuable services to the corporation whose destiny he successfully helped to shape for seventeen years.
Per October 1, the long-standing Executive Committee member Bruno Walser will take over ad interim as head of Sulzer Metco. Bruno Walser, currently head of Markets and Technology as well as Sulzer Hexis, was already in charge of Sulzer Metco from 1993 to 1999. A long-term successor as divisional head Sulzer Metco will be appointed in due course.
Thomas Gutzwiller, formerly head of Sulzer Pumps, will take over from Bruno Walser per October 1 as head of the Markets and Technology unit.
The Sulzer Executive Committee will comprise 7 members: the CEO, the CFO, the Secretary General, and the four division presidents. Markus Heusser and Thomas Gutzwiller will report directly to the CEO in their new positions.
As of November 1, 2003, Gabriele Weiher will join the Sulzer Corporation and head the merged staff functions Corporate Communications and Investor Relations. Gabriele Weiher, PhD, a graduate in business administration, was already with Sulzer as Investor Relations Officer from 1999 to 2002.
